(Gabriella Grabovska / Fourth Estate)
New on campus, ESA aims to create a safe space for every student
BY RENATA PERNEGROVA, STAFF WRITER
Mason’s European Student Association (ESA) launched earlier this semester to promote cultural understanding and create a space for both domestic and international students to exchange experiences and share their backgrounds.
The idea to establish the organization came from ESA’s President Gabriella Grabovska and Vice President Lee Turner. Their incentive was to fill the lack of resources for international students they both encountered.
“When I was in the Student Government, it was very much that people were ignoring that group of students, especially international students from Europe … For me it was more about being the big brother to the international students,” said Turner.
Grabovska said she was looking for an organization like this back in her freshman year.
“When I came here to the U.S. three years ago, I did not have anybody — any friends, any family or any connections whatsoever. So when I went to campus, I was looking for people who I could easily connect with and just to have a safe space with,” she said.
When searching for such an organization, Grabovska discovered there was no club dedicated to Ukrainian, Eastern-European or European students.
“That was just an indicator back in my freshman year that there was just nothing like this; there was this huge gap we needed to fill. The resources I was looking for, the community of people that maybe are coming from the same places like I do…we didn’t have that.” Grabovska said, explaining why she established the ESA.
Together with Turner and a team of other students, she started working on establishing the organization last spring.
Besides regular bureaucratic necessities, the team faced some challenges when starting ESA.
“When I was talking to other people about this, there was very much of, like, ‘does this campus really need to have something like ESA?’” Turner said.
When explaining how he dealt with the challenge, Turner said “Every international student gets homesick and we just wanted to try to find a way to get everybody represented here at George Mason, because that is what everybody deserves.”
(Gabriella Grabovska / Fourth Estate)
Now that the organization is active, Turner said every meeting’s attendees are diverse.
“We have members who are international students, who are on exchange, first generation, second generation or non-European members who are interested in learning about how diverse Europe is when it comes to languages, culture and history,” he said.
Grabovska agreed and praised the educational aspect of the meetings and events, which was particularly important to her. At each meeting, Grabovska highlights historical events that took place at the same day of the meeting or around the same time, and shares the latest news from the continent as well.
“It is important to celebrate European cultures, but also actually learn about these cultures and histories,” said Grabovska. “We are not there to just eat free snacks and listen to music — there is another part to ESA, and it is the educational part.”
Themes for past meetings included “Kahoot Night”, “Study Session with F1 Movie Watch Party” and “Eurovision Watch Party.”
More events are lined up, and Grabovska said everybody is welcome; even people who might at first be skeptical about what ESA is about.
“We are here to create cultural awareness and understanding, a safe environment and a space where we can celebrate each other and thrive at Mason,” she said. ”Come and visit us to see what ESA is all about.”
ESA meetings take place every second Monday of the month at 7:30 p.m. in Horizon Hall 1008.
EDITOR’S NOTE: An error was fixed mistakenly referring to Lee Turner as Lee Curtis (Wednesday, Nov. 12, 6:05 p.m.)
